Meanwhile, at the White House, a dozen aides are engaged in a tense “paper, rock, scissors” tournament to determine who has to be the one to tell Michelle she can’t go:

David Cameron is encouraging Barack Obama to leave his wife Michelle at home when he attends the G8 Summit in the UK this year.

British sources say the Prime Minister wants the summit in June to be WAG-free to ensure leaders remain ‘focused’ on issues like tackling tax avoidance, without the distraction of having their wives and girlfriends in tow.

Diplomats have begun the delicate process of enquiring whether the spouses of the world’s most powerful individuals are happy to be left behind during one of the highlights of the global political calendar.

It is being made clear that Samantha Cameron plans to break with G8 tradition and not host a separate programme of activities for visiting wives.

If the ploy is successful it means that the likes of Michelle Obama and Valerie Trierweiler, girlfriend of France’s Socialist President Francois Hollande, will not attend the summit, being held at the luxury Lough Erne resort in Northern Ireland.

It’s too bad, really. I’d heard that FLOTUS and Jimmy Fallon had planned to kick off their “Evolution of Mom Dancing” world tour at the G8.

Maybe the reason for Cameron’s “no significant others” request has less to do with distraction avoidance and more to do with the host’s fear of the embarrassment of a declined credit card after an expensive dinner.

But if there’s a streak of defiance in the East Wing, hope remains:

Officials admit that they will be powerless to resist if leaders insist on bringing their wives, in which case Mrs Cameron may host a modest lunch in Downing Street. But they hope to persuade them otherwise, in order to make the summit a business-like leaders-only affair.